The Meaning of the Tribulation that God Foretold Heavenly Father Whom We All Want to Attend

Sun Myung Moon
February 12, 1961
Excerpt from the Selected Speeches of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Volume XI
Unofficial Translation

God foretold that there would be seven years of great tribulation confronting Humanity at the time of the last days. The period of great tribulation is the time when all saints must face the agonizing difficulties Heaven endured throughout the course of restoration history. As all human relationships will be broken down, you will face circumstances where you cannot trust anything. No matter how much you try to live your life conscientiously and righteously, you cannot insist on your way of life. The more consciously you embrace God's Will and contemplate about the world, the more pain and suffering you will feel as you observe the world. Such a time will be the seven-years of great tribulation in the last days.

It will be a time when all hopes will be shaken, the core of your faith will waver, and the leaders whom you have followed will vacillate. Not only ideologies, but also religions, consciences, and hearts of parents will be shaken. Then, why would God make such a world at the time of the last days? It is because God wants to give the special value that you can truly participate with Him in His suffering history. God has witnessed a vast number of human miseries throughout the past 6,000 years and faced countless difficulties. Therefore, in the last days, He puts you through the environment where you cannot find the center with any ideology or faith. God wants to find true sons and daughters who will be able to say "I love God," or declare, "I will live with God" even in the midst of such tribulations and difficulties.

Knowing this, you should not be discouraged and mournful when you witness the church trembling to its core, nor should you be sorrowful seeing that the leading ideology is no longer believable. You should not be shocked, seeing that a governing leader is fallen. You should not be sad that your parents have changed, nor that your brothers and sisters end up completely different.

Even if everything that you believed and trusted in is in turmoil, your heart should remain calm. You must know that God is never in turmoil and that He will visit you at this hour. Also, know that God only makes you suffer so that one day He will build a precious relationship with you as you share the pain and suffering He has experienced throughout history. Thus, tribulation is His promise to do so. God needs such a time so that He can find a person, even in a most difficult situation, embracing Heaven and crying out, "I will go wherever You go. I will fight on with You. I will take action with You!"

Therefore, you should not despair, saying that your path is blocked. Do not be disheartened that your nation is in turmoil. God is not dead. No matter how terrible the world becomes, you should not be dejected. Remember, God is not dead. God will definitely visit you. Although everything on earth is crumbling, you must not waver in your single-minded devotion to Heaven. You must not change your inner hope that comes from relying on God. To see your unchanging heart, God pushes you into many kinds of difficulties and sufferings.

You must have conviction in your heart that you will call out to your Heavenly Father even when facing unbearable situations. Even if you feel you have fallen to the bottom of the deepest valley, you must make every effort to climb up, using only a string that connects you with Heaven in your heart. Even though you feel bitterness and pain, as if you were falling into Hell, you must poise yourself to attending your Heavenly Father, concerned with your Heavenly Father's pains and sufferings before your own. Believing that Heavenly Father realizes your personal pain and anguish, if you push forward -- no matter how miserable your situation -- with a sense of responsibility and duty, you will never perish.

Today, there are millions of Christians in the world, but how many of them has such a faith? We are attending our Heavenly Father, not at His Throne, but attending Him as he struggles in deadly waves of storms, trying desperately to find His sons or daughters. You must realize the reality of such a Heavenly Father as your Heavenly Father, such a situation is His situation, and such a desperate heart as His heart.

Then you must stand boldly before Him with conviction to proclaim, "I now come to understand that Your Desire is to find your sons and daughters, that Your Situation is to find your lost children, resolving Your historical pains and sufferings and that Your Heart is to love your lost children by embracing them. So, no matter how bitter the suffering or unbearable the difficulties I face, I declare that I am a Manifestation of Your Desire, Your Situation, and Your Heart." You must understand that once you make that commitment, you are Your Heavenly Father's son (child) and responsible to attend Him.